Defeat at Braintree, today’s match with Gateshead and your GCQs are on the agenda on today’s podcast. Ian and Dave are back with Ben to chat about it all.
Many thanks to Dexter Tyson, Ed Turnbull and Andy Cleave for the voicenotes. Keep em coming!
Yeovil skipper Jake Wannell said the defeat to Braintree was a tough one to take, but that he wouldn’t put it on the forward in the team.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins he said: “Yeah, tough one to take, obviously. After dominating the first half like we did, it was disappointing not to come away with a point, at least I feel like we had enough chances to win the game, [by] 2, 3, 4, [goals].
Ultimately, we win lose or draw as a team, so not going to push it on to the forwards at all. We’ve obviously conceded the goal, so we’ll look back at that and see where we could have done better there. Obviously, we know, the forwards know that we had plenty of chances to win the game, so we dust ourselves down and go again Monday.”
For the second match in a row, the Glovers conceded plenty of chances and Wannell put it down to the lack of the control of the ball.
“Too many turnovers, especially today, turnovers leads to chances most of the time, so we cut out the turnovers, the less chances that the opposition will have. But that’s full focus now on Monday. We’ll put that one to the side.
“It could have been a 5-4, 5-5, type of game, which we didn’t want, almost a game of basketball, like, which is not us. We want to start controlling a bit more. That’s where we’re really good, but just didn’t work today.
Mark Cooper cut a very frustrated figure following the Glovers 1-0 defeat at Braintree on Saturday. Yeovil fell to a 1-0 defeat, but had their chances to put away and the Yeovil boss put the pressure on his forwards to find the back of the net.
Speaking to BBC Somerset’s Josh Perkins, Cooper said: “It’s a game we should never, ever lose. We’ve got 15 really big chances, we don’t convert one. And they [Braintree] have a couple of chances in the first half, but it’s virtually impossible to lose that game with the amount of chances we had. I mean the first half. I mean we’re clean through on the goal, we’ve hit the goalie in the face, where we just need to to roll it in the goal, put one past the post, on the six yard line, and we’ve hit the cross bar, when it’s a roll into an empty net, and then the second half we’ve just missed multiple chances. We have to score.
“The pleasing thing is, we’ve created loads of chances. Had large spells of the game. Do we want to open up to create loads of chances? Then we leave a little bit open at the back, so it becomes end to end. But with that many chances, we have to score. Simple as that is, can’t dress it up any way. You have to score whether you’re a forward, midfield player, yeah, you’ve got score.”
When asked what it’s down to, and if Yeovil needed lady luck on their side, Cooper demanded ruthlessness in front of goal.
“It’s not luck. You have to be ruthless. When you get that chance, just put it in the back of the net. Take the back of the net out. We give the keeper a chance. We hit him in the face with a ball when the whole goal is gaping. You know we we have three chances at the end where our forwards kick each other and miss the ball, and it’s on the goal line. It’s it’s frustrating because the performance is good in terms of our attacking play. And the pleasing thing is, we create lots of chances, but we’ve got to be ruthless.”
Perkins offered a bit of praise for the performance of Tahvon Campbell, but Cooper shot back: “[It] Doesn’t matter about forwards being good. No one’s going to look in the paper tomorrow and go, ‘ooh he was good’. They can look and say ‘they didn’t score’. So I’m putting the pressure on the forwards, all of them. We’ve got enough of them. You have to score. It’s not like we’re asking you to play a style of football where you’re not getting [chances], you’re getting you’re getting loads of chances. We’re playing really attacking. Try to change a little bit. If we create that many chances in the game, we should score at least three goals, which should be enough to win a game of football.
Ahead of the visit of Gateshead on Bank Holiday Monday, Cooper said he hoped to welcome back Whittle and Cooper and that his selection headache was having “to pick the right forwards that are going to score.”
The Glovers got their first three points of the season with the 2-1 victory over Brackley Town at Huish Park last night. Ian was back at Huish Park and here are his first five conclusions of the season.
It was important to get off the mark. The pressure was really on last night following the opening two matches and ultimately, the Glovers responded. A confidence-boosting goal for Josh Sims and a memorable first for Ben Wodskou in-front of the Thatchers was exactly what the supporters, players and manager needed to ease the pressure. With a weekend trip to Braintree, who got an impressive 3-0 win over Halifax at home on the opening day, but have since lost two on the bounce with red cards in both of those defeats, Yeovil have a chance to build a bit of momentum now.
We have Jed Ward to thank. The goalkeeper was certainly the busier of the two over the course of the evening, making a series of saves as Brackley Town peppered the glovers goal. Three matches in and Ward is proving to be an impressive bit of recruitment. Aside from the ropey short goal kicks, he didn’t put a foot wrong in between the sticks last night and without him, it probably would have been a different story.
Credit to Brackley. Pre-match, I wondered if we’d see the visitors dig in and frustrate but the opposite was true. They got on the ball and played some nice football, carving Yeovil apart at times. In the first half in particular, we struggled to deal with their direct running. I was really impressed with Morgan Roberts (their number 10) in the attacking midfield. He only had one thing on his mind every time he picked up the ball, get forward and cause problems, and he did from the first minute. Maybe it was the pressure, but in that first half, they looked like the team playing at home.
Rotation paid off. There were four changes from Saturday’s dismal day at Forest Green and it showed. Harvey Greenslade was given the nod up front and his relentless running meant he was constantly putting pressure on the Brackley defenders. It was a shame he put his one chance over the bar when it fell to him, but I’d love to see more of Harvey. Kyle Ferguson stepped in for Jake Wannell and put in the type of performance we saw from him last season. The return of Brett McGavin from the start also meant we had a progressive midfielder with the ability to get us forward rather than the defensively-minded pairing of Charlie Cooper and Finn Cousin-Dawson. With games on Saturday and Bank Holiday Monday, we’re sure to see most of the squad this weekend.
We have to talk about the style. As brilliant as it was to get the three points (and stop talking about those cursed potatoes), it wasn’t the most inspiring night of football. That opening thirty minutes or so was dire. That is not a criticism of the players either, and clearly when Jed Ward realised it was working, he took responsibility on the pitch and sacked off the short goal kicks to cheers from the supporters. I don’t think we’re particularly dynamic in midfield and find it so frustrating when a visiting team comes to town and plays through us easily while we knock it about and struggle to make any meaningful openings. We’ve gone through change and brought in new players so some of that lack of cohesion is understandable, but we’re not an anomaly for that in the league. After all, what is pre-season for? I struggle to see an identity or attractive style of play, but hopefully the win will give us that confidence boost to play with a bit more freedom.
On today’s episode of the Gloverscast we talked at length about the future of Mark Cooper following the defeat at Forest Green Rovers. It’s only two games into the season, but the mood is so sour Rowntrees wish they could bag it up and sell it. It’s unusual to have this level of feeling this early and we know that it’s not just Garybunchofnumbers on X.
We were inundated with questions about the future of the manager and whether it was time for a change. One of the GCQs that came through was to put a poll out. So, here we are. Fence-dwellers, you have a not sure option if you need it.
Do you think Mark Cooper should remain Yeovil manager?
Total Voters: 1,075
Loading ...
Andy Craig returns to the Gloverscast to dissect the 2-0 defeat at Forest Green Rovers. |t’s not pretty but there we are. Brackley on Wednesday to put it right…right?
Huge thanks to Abby Carter, Dexter Tyson, Seb White, Don Gibson, Benji Williams and Jack Wall for their voice notes.
The season is back and Yeovil have a point on the board after an opening day 0-0 draw with Hartlepool. Ben and Dave were on the stream, Mike Hudson was at Huish Park and Ian’s asking the questions.
Thanks to Dexter, Ed Turnbull, Foxy, FGQC Rob Manley ,Stoney and Andrew Foot and Gloverscast Chief Scout, Luca Manley.
It’s a proper match day, finally! We’re back with a Foot in the Opposition Camp on your Saturday morning and are delighted to welcome Robbie Stelling back to the Gloverscast to chat about today’s opponents, Hartlepool United.
Happy season’s eve. The National League starts tomorrow and we’re catching up on the week and taking you through our thoughts on the summer, what we’re excited about, our key players, who’s going to be the breakout star and where we think we’ll finish.
We’ve got a lovely voice-note filling in this Gloverscast sandwich, with gigantic thanks to Mike Hudson, James Graham, Nick May, Chris Fox, Tom Bailey, Gemma Porter, Jonathan Hooper, Former Gloverscast Quiz Champion Rob Manley and Gloverscast Chief Scout, Luca Manley.
Up the Glovers!
Having taken the summer off, we are back with another of our trips down green-and-white memory lane and our guest for this episode only spent at single season at Huish Park but is still remembered fondly by Yeovil Town supporters. Having joined in the club at the start of its first season in the Football League, Jake Edwards was a key part of Gary Johnson’s side which had a good tilt at the League Two play-offs and made the FA Cup third round to boot. We caught up with him during the closed season to ask him about his time with the club.